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<title>The Stranger by Lacquiparle</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25878040">The Stranger</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lacquiparle/pseuds/Lacquiparle'>Lacquiparle</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Broadchurch</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Awkward Sexual Situations, Drunken Confessions, Drunkenness, Episode: s02e03, F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:28:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>755</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25878040</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lacquiparle/pseuds/Lacquiparle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Claire sets Ellie up with a one night stand, Ellie realizes her date looks alarmingly like someone else.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alec Hardy/Ellie Miller, Ellie Miller/That Dude Claire Sets Her Up With</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>39</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Stranger</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I’m sorry to the old gods and the new.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The alcohol made her exposed to her compulsory vulnerabilities.  Those blood hot revelations buzzing, just waiting for the right crisis.</p>
<p>Claire offered to pay for Ellie’s drink—<em>my treat</em>—and then kept fingering tenners onto the bar once Ellie hobbled over her own feet.  Silly and smiling, she felt an invisible spancel impeding her locomotion, tethering one foot to the other.  Even as a green girl out with friends, she had never had proclivities toward partying and drinking.  This terrain—Claire’s terrain—beyond her grasp as she fumbled for her footing. </p>
<p>Ellie tried to look at the blokes Claire had ensnared for their night’s gratifications.  Ellie crinkled her nose.  She felt nauseous at the emergent realization overpowering her. </p>
<p><em>Claire intends for us to—fuck—these..</em>. <em>men.</em> </p>
<p>Even her thoughts slurred together into a cursive hodge-podge.  She attempted to concentrate on the thought, yarning it together until it made sense. </p>
<p>“Claire,” she pulled the woman aside, the woman in Hardy’s custody, who she shouldn’t trust.  The person who got her intoxicated and was now in utter, complete control.  “What are we doing?”  She gasped and grabbed at her forehead.  Her hangover was developing early. </p>
<p>“Having a bit of fun, girlie.”  Claire squealed and the lads followed suit, wrangling them into their flirtatious revelry.  Claire leaned into Ellie’s shoulder.  “Take that fella, the bearded one.” </p>
<p>Ellie looked at him.  He looked alright, although the thought of having sex with anyone right now turned her stomach sour. </p>
<p>Under the artificial lighting, he looked a bit better.  Or, Ellie thought, maybe that was the alcohol speaking comfort to her. </p>
<p>He put his arm about her shoulder and asked her name and then asked if she was alright. </p>
<p>“Yeah,” she swayed into his arm, smelling of a distinct odor she couldn’t recall at the moment under the coercion of the liquor.  “You smell nice.” </p>
<p><em>Oh, Eleanor</em>. <em>No</em>. </p>
<p>“Thanks,” he laughed and leaned in to kiss her mouth.  She recalled that he informed her of his name, but she was too fixated on his beard, his build, and that overpowering scent.  It was too familiar, but the familiarity was unrecognizable.  Like a memory just out of reach. </p>
<p>Instead, she kissed him back, and the fluttering in her stomach wasn’t for him, but for someone else.  A face she couldn’t discern under this man’s exigent tongue.    </p>
<p>“You wanna get out of here?”  He asked, the underlying statement that they were going to undertake foolish endeavors unspoken.  In moments like these, Ellie realized, implicit consent was par for the course.  A kiss, a blush, a nod.  These were all a tacit agreement. </p>
<p>Ellie nodded; her eyes half closed. </p>
<p>Claire winked at her and told Ellie to relax and enjoy herself. </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>In the shadows of the room, Ellie’s mind began to wander as this stranger ran his hands over her body.  She initially thought of Joe, someone she assumed love for only to be an unknown in her life.  This man’s mouth traveled, hurried and quick from her lips to her neck, rushing the process to the final goal.  From Joe, Ellie’s muddled thoughts turned to Hardy. </p>
<p><em>Hardy</em>.  <em>No</em>.</p>
<p>But, suddenly, her body responded accordingly, and she let out an unrestrained moan. </p>
<p>The fool above her, prying and prodding at her pants, assumed her vocals were for him and he responded in kind.  Except, Ellie thought, this man above her with the recognizable scent, Claire’s conscious decision tonight, and Ellie’s sudden vulnerability all coalesced into one drunken thought. </p>
<p>If she imagined this man, who demonstrated a strange likeness to Hardy, was her work partner, the situation wasn’t so bad.  The hands running across her stomach, touching her thighs, or running his fingers across her sex.  She closed her eyes and shuddered blissfully at the thought of another bloke. </p>
<p>Hardy, the cold, stagnant man, who expressed so little and validated so much. </p>
<p>The stranger’s thrusts became more urgent, and in the dark, he looked so very like Hardy.  Ellie ran her hands down his biceps, concocting a visual in her mind of how she imagined this night might have gone. </p>
<p>Hardy whispering into her ear, confessing secrets unbidden except in shadows and dark rooms.  Each thought drove her toward an earnest realization. </p>
<p>“Say you love me,” she whispered to the right man in the wrong moment. </p>
<p>And then the image was gone.  The room, dark and bleak, erupted in cold forlornness around her as the stranger fell upon her body in his own idyllic abandon. </p>
<p><em>Hardy</em>, she held in her mind, <em>say you love me</em>. </p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I’m so sorry.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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